Where are the songs of strings?
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The Veena Festival left listeners longing for less talking.
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SOOTHING M. Bahauddin Dagar presenting a veena recital Photo: A.M. Faruqui
Where are the Songs of Spring? Where Are They?
John Keats in `Ode to Autumn'
Just a few days after the Veena Foundation's launching of the Veena Festival at the India International Centre the other day, the Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi made a statement at Bangalore on the occasion of Akashvani Bangalore's 50th anniversary. He stated that special efforts would be made to retain the natural tonal flavour of Indian musical instruments, and the use of synthesisers discouraged by not granting official awards to those music directors who deploy the usage of synthesizers in their music compositions for Indian films.
Going back to the opening evening of the Veena Festival, that actually commenced more than a couple of hours behind the scheduled time, with quite a few announcements, speeches and talks followed by a prolonged ceremony of lighting the inaugural-lamp by about half a dozen guests including L.M. Singhvi and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi B. Joshi. Many in the audience lost their cool and started shouting that they had come to listen to veena music and not the lengthy speeches, to which the Lt. Governor said, "I entirely agree" and made a very brief statement, concluding by reciting the opening verse of the Saraswati Vandana "Yaa kundendu tushar haar dhavala, Yaa shweta vastravita".
The opening recital by Geeta Krishnamurthy on the Saraswati veena was followed by some more talking, which reminded one of a Chinese delegate's reaction after coming out of an international gathering. Asked about his reaction, the diplomat from Beijing said, "It was all talkie-talkie but no do-ee do-ee"!
Redeeming feature
The only redeeming feature of the evening was M. Bahauddin Dagar's soulful Rudra veena recital in the noontime raga Patdeep - ill-suited for that time, around 8 p.m. He must have come prepared thinking that his turn to appear on the stage would be at about at 4-30 p.m. (the festival was meant to commence at 3-30). His neat and precise movement over the frets and the strings released rich-toned soothing glides over the bass strings and neat and sonorous tones in the upper octaves. He did well by not having any contact mike on his veena but just a single microphone for his recital. One wonders if the chamber auditorium at the IIC does need any sound amplification system or contact mikes. All these gadgets give the not-so keen music listeners a good opportunity to converse and gossip while the music is being released at a very high decibel. The late Nawab of the erstwhile Princely State of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, Hamid Ali Khan, asked his guru and his chief court musician, Ustad Mohammed Wazir Khan (the 10th direct descendant of Miyan Tansen from his daughter's side) about the peculiarities of his instrument the Rudra veena and its virtues. To which the great ustad said, "Huzur-e-Aalaa, is saaz ka naam hai been, iski aawaz `beeni beeni' hoti hai, aur, iske sunne-wale bhi `been been' ke aate hain". ("Your honor, the name of this instrument is `been' and its sound is very very soft `beeni-beeni'. Its listeners too are a selected few only - `been been ke'.) Bahauddin rendered the alap-jod-jhala with tuneful and colourful phrasings of Patdeep's note permutations, several of which were released with long, sweeping and soothing glides. The rhythmic sequences in the 12-beat Chautal composition contained scores of well-executed and complex rhythmic sequences. The Bangalore-based veena exponent, Suma Sudhindran's choice of her newly concocted instrument, named by her as the `tarangini veena' was quite intriguing. Her good old Saraswati veena from Mysore had a rich and sonorous tonal flavour and one had relished her able expositions on that particular instrument of hers. In sharp contrast, the so-called tarangini veena had a loud and flat sound by means of the contact-mike and high volume of the amplifier. Its structure over a thin wooden plate with metal frets resembled a guitar. The only gourd that was fixed at the top of this instrument was merely to rest it on the player's left thigh. The main reason for switching over to such unaesthetic musical instruments seems to be their convenience for going on foreign jaunts, air travel in particular. It also explains the creation of the chitra veena to replace the good old gottuvadyam. Fortunately, the sitar, sarod and the Rudra and the vichitra veena players have refrained from creating a portable replacement for their traditional instruments. Another factor that seemed rather queer was the non-inclusion of some of the Delhi-based prominent musicians like Ustad Asad Ali Khan (Rudra veena), Pandit Gopal Krishen (vichitra veena) and Vidushi Vishalam Venkatachalam (Saraswati veena).
JITENDRA PRATAP
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
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Thiruvananthapuram
